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The launch on the first run didn’t seem all that spectacular
as I pulled the front wheels probably about a foot and a half
and didn’t really feel that “dead hook”
sensation that lets you know you're glued to the track. The
car pulled strong to the finish and I figured I may have run
a high 11.30 but wasn’t expecting much. When I got my
time slip I saw I had actually had a 1.502 at sixty feet but
HOLY COW I went 11.267 at a whopping 117.38 mph! Man I’m
telling ya it didn’t feel THAT fast! I ran the car across
the scales and I was in at 3190 lbs. against my minimum of
3170 lbs.
The only thing I noticed that wasn’t right was that
the alternator belt made a loud squeal when I started the
engine and I could hear it squeal when I revved up the engine
slightly. I thought “here we go again.” It seems
if I’m going to have a problem it more than likely will
be at Earlville. Back in the pits myself and buddy Jim Kramer
looked things over and checked the voltage of the battery
only to find it really low and not charging up very fast to
boot. I figured I had broken a plate in the battery and it
was grounding out.
Luckily fellow racer and all around nice guy Greg Anderson
(not THAT Greg Anderson), had a spare battery that would fit
and offered to let me borrow it. The only stipulation of course
was that if we ended up in the finals together he wanted his
battery back! I promised him it was a deal and installed the
new power producer and was ready to go. Second round of qualifying
was called and I headed eagerly to the lanes hoping to come
close to duplicating the first run as the weather was now
at about 2300 ft.
This is where things got interesting and FUN! I’m not
sure if it was the track “coming in" or the new
juice from the battery or just the stars in alignment, but
I knew as soon as I launched this was a DEAD HOOK! The Muscrate
pulled the biggest WHEELSTAND ever and all I could see was
SKY! I’m sure as the front end was coming down I must
have had the biggest smile on my face ever seen on a man in
a helmet!
When the front landed the car choked up quite bad from what
I imagine was fuel slosh and then rocketed down the track.
I thought to myself “man, if THAT wasn’t a 1.40
sixty foot I don’t know what is!” I eagerly accepted
my time slip and all I could say was “Holy S**T”!!!
I had gone a 1.443 in the sixty foot!! The ET wasn’t
much better due to the stumble but it was a fine 11.25 @ 117.58
mph. I’m telling you I could have gone home a happy
man at that point, but I figured as long as I was there I
might as well take home some money.
My first round opponent had an “issue” after
his burnout so I had a single and had a 1.48 sixty foot and
ran 11.31 @ 116.85. The squealing alternator belt was back
again and would continue to haunt me the next couple rounds.
I hadn’t qualified #1 but I was the fastest car in the
race. For me this was great, as I consider it to be a whole
lot easier to do the chasing.
Second round opponent Richard Myers and his 14.00 second
U/SA Mopar wagon gave me a real close race as I had him slightly
on the tree and I ran an on-the-brakes 11.311 on a 11.31 dial
to his 14.055 on his 14.05 dial. True win was .012".
A couple of weeks before at the bracket races I had won a
round by .0003”, that’s 3 TEN thousandths! I also
lost in that race by a stinking thousandth! So a hundredth
was no big deal, yeah right!
The next round was the finals and guess who was in the other
lane? You guessed it, Greg Anderson. He jokingly requested
his battery be returned and I agreed to return it after the
finals. Not much good to tell about that race as I had a horrible
reaction time and Greg gladly handed me my ass on a platter
for the win.
Over all, it was a really good day at the races and I went
home with a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach for a couple
of reasons. First, I had a 1.44 sixty foot! Second, I had
some fun which has been a long time coming. Third, I am completely
confident that if nothing goes catastrophically wrong between
now and October I WILL see a 10 second time slip.
Considering about a month ago my index was 12.35 I feel I’m
on track to see the performance I estimated was possible when
I first switched to this combination and boldly (perhaps stupidly)
predicted I could go tens with a “Stocker” FORD
302. I may be wrong, but I am not aware that has ever been
done before?
In closing, I will say that I am very impressed with HUGHES
PERFORMANCE and they will get more of my business in the future.
My charging problem ended up being a bad bearing in the alternator
so hopefully I can get a hold of one of MSD's new billet racing
units and end the problem. I’m going to do some more
testing in the following weeks and some more racing so be
sure and check back next month to see what kinda trouble I’ve
gotten myself into! Until then remember, there’s always
hope and….
…When in doubt… DO A WHEELIE !!! A really BIG
Wheelie!!!
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